Just Like an Onion

Yesterday, I made the mistake of trying to have lunch in Winooski. If you haven’t heard, they recently decided that since that dome-over-the-city idea wasn't going to work out, it would probably be best to just blow up a large portion of the city and start over. I have no problem with that, and the only difference to me seems that I can now get through the city faster than ever. Great. But yesterday I actually needed to stop there for something. Well there's an unexpected twist. Since I've made it this long without the need for any of the wonderful services offered on Winooski's main street, I never gave it a second thought. Here’s an aerial view of the section in question.



Notice (left-center) the wicked cool 1/4mi oval they had installed for maximum nitro gear-grinding action! Actually, it really does help you get through that section of the city pretty quick. I initially thought I might park in the area to the left of the oval. Seems a lot of other people wanted to park around here, too. I never would have guessed that this many people would want to come to Winooski. So, I write this as a public service to those of you who may someday need to park here.

There are a lot of One Way streets in this vacinity and they are, by and large, not stacked in your favor. If you choose one of these streets and the parking doesn't work out (and trust me, it won't) you quickly realize that you've just purchased yourself the classic "one-way ticket to Palookaville." Two times through this one-way maze, and I started seriously evaluating those lunch plans.

I saw a space open up on the other side of the "racetrack", turned her around, and realized that there was no way to get to it. Below is a map of how I had to circumnavigate my way to the spot.


Thanks to some creative curbing, there isn't a way to just pull up in front of the building with the parking space in front of it. It was a long way to go (just like this post.) I did eventually make it (also, like this post.)

I parked, got out of the car and, shitting you not, almost collided with another pedestrian. I have to cross at a point where traffic freakin' triangulates. I was so busy trying to look in three directions at once, I nearly ran into a guy, and from the looks of him, I think he would've been some pissed. It would not have gone well.

Only one crosswalk left to navigate. What could possibly go wrong?

Relax. Nothing happened.